Affidavit General
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ONTARIO Court File Number Ontario Court of Justice 267/13 (Name of Court) at 425 Grand Avenue West, Chatham ON N7M 6M8 Form 14A: Affidavit (General) (Court office address) dated January 30, 2014 Applicant(s) Full legal name & address for service — street & number, municipality, Lawyer’s name & address — street & number, municipality, postal code, postal code, telephone & fax numbers and e-mail address (if any). telephone & fax numbers and e-mail address (if any). Chatham Kent Children’s Services Loree Hodgson Harris 495 Grant Avenue West Barrister & Solicitor Chatham, ON N7L 1C5 Chatham Kent Children’s Services Tel: 519-352-0440; Fax: 519-351-2367 495 Grant Avenue West Chatham, ON N7L 1C5 Tel: 519-352-0440; Fax: 519-351-2367 Respondent(s) Full legal name & address for service — street & number, municipality, Lawyer’s name & address — street & number, municipality, postal code, postal code, telephone & fax numbers and e-mail address (if any). telephone & fax numbers and e-mail address (if any). Miriam Gittel Helbrants & Yachanan Laver Christopher Knowles 222 St. Clair Street, Unit 104 Barrister & Solicitor Chatham, ON N7L 3J4 518 Victoria Avenue Windsor, ON N9A 4M9 Tel: 519-252-0529; Fax: 519-255-1719 [email protected] Solicitor for the Respondent Parents My name is (Full legal name) Miriam Helbrants We live in (municipality and province) City of Chatham, Province of Ontario and I swear/affirm that the following is true: Set out the statements of fact in consecutively numbered paragraphs. Where possible, each numbered paragraph should consist of one complete sentence and be limited to a particular statement of fact. If you learned a fact from someone else, you must give that person’s name and state that you believe that fact to be true. 1. I am the respondent mother in this protection application and as such have knowledge of the matters hereinafter deposed to. 2. I make this affidavit in response to the affidavits of Kerry Rumble, Garnet Eskritt and Claudette Wyles all sworn December 17, 2013 and found at tabs 3, 4 and 5 respectively of the Continuing Record. 3. I deny the statements of Mr. Adam Brudveski found at paragraph 17 of Ms. Rumble’s affidavit; specifically I deny his suggestion that there is some edict in force requiring and authorizing the use of physical discipline in our community; this is a lie and an attempt to portray our community as something it is not. I declare that all what I wrote about this issue in Attachment 1 to form 33.b affirmed 28 January 2014 is true to the best of my knowledge. 4. Ms. Rumble’s statement at paragraph 45 of her affidavit is also false to the extent that it implies that the community as a whole endorses, accepts and regularly uses physical discipline on its children. I declare that all what I wrote about this issue in Attachment 1 to form 33.b affirmed 28 January 2014 is true to the best of my knowledge. FLR 14A (September 1, 2005) www.DIVORCEmate.com Form 14A: Affidavit (General) (page 2) Court File Number 267/13 dated January , 2014 5. I do not use physical discipline on my children neither does my husband. I know for fact that physical discipline is not accepted in our community nor was it accepted in the past. I know for fact that the community do not believe in physical discipline and only encourage to educate the child in methods of love and explanation. The community believe that physical discipline contradict the commitment of the Torah of loving God and doing all commitments of the Torah only as result as love since physical discipline can cause afraid but can not resulted in love. I have never seen or aware of a parent or caregiver in the community that use physical discipline on a child. 6. With respect to Ms. Rumble’s statement at paragraph 46 of her affidavit it is completely false that there exists “a level of control by community leaders… which compromises the safety and development of the children.” The only knowledge Mr. Rumble has of this alleged fact is from what has read in Mr. Brudzveski’s transcript of evidence and perhaps from her contact with social workers from the Quebec agency; I am not aware of any evidence that exists from our time in Ontario which would support such an allegation. I declare that all what I wrote about this issue in Attachment 1 to form 33.b affirmed 28 January 2014 is true to the best of my knowledge. 7. Ms. Rumble states at paragraph 47 of her affidavit that the “investigation remains ongoing and additional materials will be filed.” 8. There have been no additional affidavits served on me since December 17, 2013; my husband and I have complied with all the terms of supervision that were ordered by Justice Fuerth on December 17, 2013 and there have been no new concerns identified by the Society since the without prejudice interim care order was made. 9. The public health nurse has told my husband and I she is not sure why the court order of December 17, 2013 requires us to engage the public health department for services as her opinion is that we do not require services from them. 10. My baby was delivered in December without any problems; he remains in my care and I am not aware of any concerns the Society may have with respect to his care. 11. There is no reason why the Society needs to continue its investigation into our family. 12. My version, which I told repeatedly to all social workers and to the police investors, on the cause of the mark, is true. It was, to the best of my knowledge, a result of the child Sheia marking on her face with a permanent marker and than my efforts to clean the ink stain. This all is true and I declare that I had not lie or hide any thing related to the mark or alleged bruise. 13. As far as I verified and researched the opinion of the doctors regarding the Mark, I did not see any official medical confirmation that it was in fact a bruise. However, it can be that my scrubbing on the sensitive skin of my child cheek (together with eczema and treatment eczema that my child had) caused some kind of light bruise. However it must to be very minor which I never notice it as a bruise. Of course I was not about to just over scrubbing the mark intently. However the definition "injury" to the mark is just outrageous me and is not backed by any medical confirmation. 14. I enclose as Exhibit “A” my correspondence with Dr. Newell, which includes a letter from Dr. Newell dated January 22, 2014. Dr. Newell was the hospital emergency room doctor who treated my daughter Sheia when the Society workers brought her to the hospital on December 12, 2013. Form 14A: Affidavit (General) (page 3) Court File Number 267/13 dated January , 2014 15. As you can see from Dr. Newell’s letter of January 22, 2014, he confirms his earlier diagnosis which can be found at paragraph 37 of Ms. Rumble’s affidavit, which was that there was a 1-2 cm lesion that had the appearance of bruising and that she had diaper rash due to irritation however she had no ear infection. He used the term "I hence felt it was a bruise" rather than "confirmed". 16. It is clear from the letter of Dr. Newell that he never performed the cleaning test since he relied on the word of unidentified 'CAS worker' that stated to him that he or she already tried to remove the mark with no success. A fact that is missing from all 3 affidavits of three CAS workers in the case. I doubt in the level of reliance on this CAS worker's claim as well I am questioning the level expertise of such cleaning test if it was taking place. 17. Dr. Newell also indicates that his diagnosis of a bruise was partly based on the words of the unidentified CAS worker that claimed that she or he performed some kind of cleaning test prior to the arrival to the hospital. A fact that undermines the certainty of the doctor's diagnosis. 18. Furthermore Dr. Newell confirms in his January 22, 2014 letter that the issues he noted were minor and that he did not give an opinion as to whether the bruise constituted abuse or neglect. 19. Dr. Newell also confirms his earlier diagnosis that the children were generally in good health as was stated at paragraph 37 of Ms. Rumble’s affidavit. 20. I can not rule out the possibility that the intensive scrubbing of the ink stain caused some light bruise in addition to the remains of the ink stain. I consider this possibility, because I am not questioning the good faith nor the professionally of Dr. Newell and I respect Dr. Newell’s diagnosis that the mark may in fact be some minor bruising in addition to the remains of the ink stain and it was so minor that I did not get a notice of it. However I deny any allegation that this bruise is the result of abuse or neglect on my part, my husband’s part of that of any caregiver of my child. 21. I enclose as Exhibit “B” a letter from Dr. Rachel Rubinstein dated January 5, 2014. 22. Dr. Rubinstein is a dermatologist, her practice is located at the Jewish General Hospital, her contact info is Dermatology Clinic G-026 Jewish General Hospital, 514-340-8222 ext.